Regina King just revealed that Sam Cooke’s family actually appreciated the singer’s portrayal in One Night in Miami. The director talked to Hollywood Life about the film and its impact. For the Oscar-hopeful, doing justice to the characters was of utmost importance. Cooke is surrounded by his friends Jim Brown, Malcolm X, and Muhammad Ali in the project. Leslie Odom Jr. plays the singer and gives him the kind of spark that can be hard to convey when bringing such a star to life. The singer’s ex-wife actually appreciated her portrayal a lot according to the director. Cooke tragically passed away in December of 1964, but his legacy stretches far past that decade. It’s been decades, but the song he sings near the end of One Night in Miami now sits in residence at The Smithsonian. In fact, the performance from the film is actually the version that’s eluded so many preservationists all these years. Odom actually had to try and get the affectation right without a visual aid for himself.
